Chapter 47 - Busy Night (part 1)
"Shall we wait for them here?" After leaving across the south gate of the city, Ca.s.sidy"s group ran for more 500 meters when Mia suggested waiting for Lucien.
Mia knew the Black Hand Party group as she worked with them for almost a year, but Maggie lived with them for more than five years. She knew that they would chase them quickly.
"If we wait, the scouts will track us. Does he want you to take that risk?"
Aira and her daughter, Ella, didn"t know what to think. They were terrified because they knew that Ca.s.sidy was the supposedly dead Queen, so they feared that mercenaries and adventurers would blame them for treason or something like that.
But she didn"t blame Ca.s.sidy. After a year of living together, they became friends, and Aria would follow Ca.s.sidy without a second thought. It wasn"t hard to see what was going on between Ca.s.sidy, Mia, and Lucien, so Aria wanted to give her opinion.
"If you want to wait for him, I don"t mind... After all, he fought for us..."
*Roar* *Meow*
Oya and Ko could not understand words, but they understood the intention, and could already recognize Lucien"s name, so they "roared" to make their point clear.
Ca.s.sidy wanted to go further, but she also couldn"t deny that she was worried about Lucien. "Let"s hide near the trees and wait for them."
The group sat under some trees as they looked at the gate, waiting for Lucien and Astrid to come. Oya did not leave Maggie"s side as her master ordered. Ella laid her head on her mother"s thighs, while Mia did the same with Ca.s.sidy.
Ca.s.sidy started patting Mia on the head as she thought about how it all happened so fast. She needed Lucien"s help and still does because there was still some of the poison in her body...
But she never thought that she would be with a man in her life... and it was her daughter"s future husband... She didn"t even have a romantic relations.h.i.+p with Mia"s father, so everything she felt for Lucien was new to her... New and intense...
Ca.s.sidy was less than an hour without Lucien, but she already missed him a lot...
Mia looked up and saw Ca.s.sidy"s sad look. She imagined that her mom was feeling the same as her. "Are you missing him already?"
"No... I... I"m just worried... about Astrid..." Ca.s.sidy had already decided to stay with Lucien and her daughter, even if it was something unusual. Still, she can"t help being ashamed that her daughter could easily perceive her feelings.
Mia smiled, seeing her mother blush. "You don"t have to lie to me...You know... We have the same husband now..."
"Husband?!" Ca.s.sidy was caught off guard by Mia"s words. After all, mother and daughter having the same husband was a ridiculous situation.
Mia made a confused expression when she thought of something. "As our husband, will he also be my stepfather, your son-in-law, and the king?"
"What?! I can"t think of these things right now!" Ca.s.sidy couldn"t imagine how crazy it would be if she recovered the crown... What would people call them?
"Crazy people!" Maggie was going crazy, listening to Mia and Ca.s.sidy"s conversation. She started using her vision magic to look for possible dangers, and stop listening to those strange things.
Everything seemed normal. Some guards at the gate, but almost no movement as it was at night... After a few minutes, Maggie saw some Black Hand Party scouts arriving at the gate.
"Some mercenaries arrived at the gate, we have to go now, or they will find us!"
Ca.s.sidy did not doubt that the scouts could follow their tracks easily, so she prepared to leave... But Maggie warned them that the scouts had already discovered them, there was probably someone with high tracking skills in the group of mercenaries.
"We have to go now!" Everyone followed Ca.s.sidy"s order and started running in the opposite direction of the city. As they ran, Maggie spoke her thoughts.
"For them to have found us so quickly, it must be Francis"s group. If It is him, we cannot escape because he is the best tracker I know."
"I will stay and hold them. Take care of my daughter!" Aria knew the situation was urgent and didn"t think twice about stopping. She held the s.h.i.+eld and sword that Mia gave her and prepared herself to distract the group of mercenaries while Ca.s.sidy and the others fled.
Of course, she couldn"t just run while her mother stayed behind, so she also stopped, holding her little dagger while she s.h.i.+vered with fear.
Ca.s.sidy also didn"t want to leave Aria behind and stopped while trying to get more information from Maggie. "How many are they?"
Maggie didn"t know if she feared more Lucien or the mercenaries. Betrayal was punished with death in the Black Hand Party. "I saw about ten, but there must be others following them. We can"t stay!"
Ca.s.sidy took Aria"s hand and started running; the others followed. "Let"s run as hard as we can, and when they reach us, we will fight together."
Ca.s.sidy was so concerned about the mercenaries finding them so fast that she forgot she could communicate with Lucien by telepathy. But now that the situation was critical, she would have to try it.
"Lucien! Lucien!! Can you hear me??? Oh s.h.i.+t! How does it work???" She tried to think and shout his name in her mind, but mental communication needed training to be perfected. Of course, cases like L.u.s.t, who is literally inside Lucien, were much more natural.
Ca.s.sidy kept trying, and after a few seconds, she was relieved when she heard Lucien"s voice in her mind. "I"m coming! Where are you?"
She said that they were south of the city and that a group of mercenaries has almost reached them. Lucien told them to keep running while he increased his speed.
Ca.s.sidy"s group continued to run as fast as they could, but Francis"s group are specialized in chasing, so in less than a minute, they approached Ca.s.sidy and the others.
"Shoot an arrow on that traitor b.i.t.c.h! Francis recognized Maggie from a long distance, but they would not be able to shoot arrows more than four hundred meters while the targets were running. When he was close enough, Francis gave the order for his archers to start firing, aiming at Maggie first.
Maggie saw that the archers were going to start firing, and at that distance, they would be easy targets. She thought she was fortunate that Lucien didn"t kill her before, but now she wasn"t far from death and dying from a back attack wasn"t something she wanted.
Maggie stopped and started making hand signals, casting a s.h.i.+eld spell.
"Now!" Shooting an arrow while running was not an easy task, and the archers were aiming when Maggie stopped and began to do her spell. Francis saw that it was the best opportunity and rushed the archers, who stopped for a second to shoot the arrow with maximum precision.
*Woosh*
It all happened so fast that no one understood what exactly happened. Three archers were about to shoot Maggie when a black arrow went through their heads, killing all three almost at the same time.
"What?!?!" Everyone looked back and saw four people running about two hundred meters away from the city gate. Behind them came a bunch of mercenaries, which Maggie and Francis concluded to be Black Hand Party people.
Francis"s group was surprised by the arrow that Lucien shot, giving Maggie time to cast a gray barrier of approximately six square meters in front of her.
Ca.s.sidy"s group didn"t stop running because Lucien kept talking in her mind them keep running.
Lucien couldn"t help but curse as everything was a mess. When he was almost at the gate, mercenaries began to appear from all the alleys, chasing them. To make matters worse, guards also started to follow them, and probably the guild would be warned, creating disorder in the city.
All he could do was keep running. Lucien"s speed had increased again after having s.e.x with Ca.s.sidy, and now he could have avoided the group that was chasing them, but he would have to leave the girls...
Astrid had incredible speed, but Anne and Marie were not so agile. Lucien would not abandon his girls soon after they agreed to follow him, so they ended up in this situation, where they ran away with dozens of people chasing them.
Francis realized that his companions were arriving, but Lucien would come first. His group once had ten people, but now that the three archers have been killed, seven remain. He ordered everyone to attack Maggie before Lucien could approach and join her.
Maggie"s barrier was excellent against arrows and magic, but when Francis"s group started to run toward her barrier, she knew she would be in trouble. She was a support mage and only knew one attack spell, which needed some time to channel. Maggie panicked as she didn"t know if she should keep running or wait for Lucien.
Lucien was delighted that the first black arrow he shot with his golden bow killed three people. His senses were getting better and better as his body absorbed the improvements he gained from Ca.s.sidy.
Of course, he could only kill the three archers because they were aligned and focused on Maggie. Now that he saw the other mercenaries going toward Maggie, he did not think twice before shooting more arrows.
Even though he tensioned only 7/10 percent of the bowstring, the black arrow flew at super speed and went through the chest of one of the mercenaries, also hitting the shoulder of another ahead.
"AAAAHHH!!" The mercenary who had his chest pierced fell dead, but the one who had his shoulder shot fell to the ground, still alive, and started screaming in pain.
"d.a.m.n!!!" Francis understood that the archer who was shooting those absurd arrows would not miss, so he gave up chasing Maggie and started running in another direction.
The other mercenaries were also afraid to continue. After seeing their leader running away, they also went in opposite directions, trying to hide behind some tree to avoid Lucien"s arrows.
Lucien could hear Francis"s orders even from afar with his super hearing. He saw that the group stopped heading towards Maggie, but he still thought it was worthwhile to use one of his rare black arrows on the man who dared to chase his women.
He trained with a bow for a long time in his childhood, and now with his greatly improved senses, he easily aimed at Francis"s neck while still running.
"Arrggh-h-h!" The arrow was accurate and ripped half Francis"s neck, not killing him on the spot, but knocking him to the ground. Francis started to gurgle as he couldn"t even scream for the last agonizing seconds of his life.
Lucien no longer wasted arrows on the other mercenaries and continued running with Marie, Anne, and Astrid towards Maggie, who did not leave behind her barrier.
"What are you waiting for?!?! Run!!" Lucien shouted at Maggie as the number of mercenaries who had already pa.s.sed through the gate was over three hundred. As the group ran through the city, other Black Hand Party mercenaries joined the chase group.
Lucien"s group reached Maggie, who joined them, and they ran towards the forest in the same direction as Ca.s.sidy"s group was running ahead.
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Portgreen was in chaos as a large group of mercenaries was running around town, chasing someone. The guards tried to stop them, but the group was extensive, and all they could do was report to the public council and the guild while some of them followed the mercenaries.
One of these guards arrived at the guild and went straight to report to one of the leaders. There was only one guild leader in the city currently, and the guard entered her office after receiving her permission.
After reporting that the Black Hand Party was making a mess in the city, the guard waited for the answer from the mysterious masked woman.
Olivia put her hand on her chin while making a thoughtful expression. "Were these the mercenaries that they got into trouble with?"
"Who are they, my Lady?" Olivia ended up thinking out loud, so the guard did not understand.
Olivia was about to give orders to the guard when she felt the room shake. In fact, the whole guild building started to shake like in an earthquake.
"What the f.u.c.k is that?!?!?"